How Do Universities Spend Your Money?

Like rain at Glasto or getting a massive spot before a big date, we’ve all just accepted uni tuition fees as one of those annoying-but-inevitable parts of life. But have you ever stopped to think where all that money is actually going? No, us neither!

But if you don’t know how your cash is being spent, how do you know if you’re getting good value for money from your course? With fees now reaching £9,250 a year at lots of universities, it’s a question more students are starting to ask.

Thankfully, here at Whatuni we’re here to do the hard work for you, so we’ve donned our sleuthing hats and come up with some answers. Whether you’re still considering which course to take or you’re already a year or two in, you’re going to want to read this, so let us explain how universities spend your money…

This is by far the biggest expenditure for most institutions, with UK universities getting through a whopping £14.4 billion between them in the year 2014-15 alone.

However, before you go checking your lecturers’ wrists for Rolexes, we should probably point out it wasn’t all spent on their salaries (we bet they’re disappointed by this though). The sum also covers the cost of paying administrative and support staff, course design, exams, research projects and out-of-hours and one-on-one support for students.

Student Accommodation

That’s right, your swanky student pad didn’t come for free! According to figures published in the Huffington Post, universities spent some £1.34 billion in 2014-15 academic year. This might go towards building brand new halls as and when necessary, as well as maintaining current ones, keeping you in hot water and Wi-Fi for a minimal fee.

It turns out running a library is quite expensive – the £630 million a year kind of expensive. That’s how much universities in the UK spent on operating 390 libraries in 2014-15 according to those figures above. This enables quite a lot of those libraries to stay open 24-hours-a-day for at least some of the year - pretty handy for when that all-day study session turns into an all-nighter. Next time we won’t moan so much about paying our late fees.

Scholarships, Grants and Bursaries

It warms our hearts to learn that collectively, UK institutions handed out more than £833 million to students in the form of scholarships, grants and bursaries, allowing students without the financial means to pay for an education and get the same chances as everybody else.

Every day, your uni lays on a load of services that you probably take for granted. Ever use your university’s careers service, for example? Or enjoy a night out at the students’ union, join a society or play on a sports team? Those things all cost money, just like on campus health and counselling services, crèches and transport to help staff and students get around bigger sites. All this added up to another £871 million of expenditure for unis back in 2014-15.

What Does It All Mean?

There are two things that are important to know.

Firstly, universities don’t get all that money just from you – in fact only about a quarter of their income comes from UK student fees. The rest comes from the higher fees paid by international students, government grants, charitable donations and investments that universities make.

Secondly, universities are essentially businesses, and a business on that scale costs a lot to run. Plus, with cuts in government spending on education, unis are having to make up the shortfall somehow – enter tuition fee hikes.

According to a recent survey reported by the BBC, a massive 80% of students, when questioned, didn’t think their university provided enough information on how fees are used. So, should unis be doing more to tell students how their money is being spent?

We wanted a view from the street, or in this case, the campus, so we spoke to Freja Brunning, who is currently studying BA Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. She told us:

‘I personally have absolutely no idea where my fees go, I wasn’t made aware before starting and I’m still not sure at all.

“I definitely think university would be much more appealing to prospective students if the universities broke down where the money was going. I have friends who didn’t go to uni because they felt it wasn’t worth the money and maybe if they would have been shown everything it was going on, it may have persuaded them to go.

“An overview in percentages of what goes to lectures, what goes to facilities etc would be something I - and I think many other students - would be interested in seeing.’

In Conclusion…

While some institutions could do a lot better at letting prospective students know how their cash is being spent, there’s nothing dodgy going on behind the scenes – they really are investing the money in providing you with a top-notch education. So, should the lack of clarity put you off? Absolutely not! As Freja says:

‘While I do think about where the tuition fees go, it was never something that made me question whether I wanted to go to uni or not. Looking back at what I’ve had access to over the last year I think I’ve been very fortunate and have received high levels of teaching and facilities. I’ve had a high enough amount of contact hours and one-on-one help when needed.

“I see what I’m doing as an investment, and if it means I’m more likely to get a well-paid career in something I enjoy I then it’s worth it in the end.”